42 Darwin s Peculiar Doctrine. 



fa}** 



&quot; The proper study of mankind is man ; &quot; and Dar 

 win for the first time compelled general attention 

 ^S to the doctrine of evolution by the bearing of nat 

 ural selection on man s origin, kinship, and his- 

 tory. He first made the public acquainted with 

 the idea of development ; and the public has done 

 him the honor of christening it Darwinism. 

 ZX Ask, now, a representative of the great public 

 what he means by Darwinism or evolution, and 

 you will probably be told it is the doctrine which 

 teaches that man and the monkeys have the same 

 forefathers ; or, should you succeed in finding a 

 /^ better-informed spokesman, you will be informed 

 that Darwinism is the theory which supposes all 

 the species of plants and animals to be the re 

 sult, not of special creation, but of gradual changes 

 in pre-existing and simpler forms. Now, it is 

 important to observe at the outset that while both 

 these answers contain cardinal ideas of the theory 

 of evolution, neither touches Darwin s great orig 

 inal contribution to that theory. Darwin was 

 iwt the author or first propounder of the doctrine 

 that man and the monkeys have the same ances 

 tors, nor yet of the doctrine that all the varieties 

 of animal and vegetable life have been produced 

 by the slowly accumulated modifications of one 

 or more earlier types. It is true that Darwin ac- 



